sha-mu-say
by TrekDr
Summary: Just a little flight of fancy, at approximately the month marker of voyagers return. J/C implied. maybe a second chapter might happen but fine as a one shot. usual things about not my characters, not for profit. i just couldn't wait to get there! [i like parties and celebrations]


_my J/C post return fanfic is nearly linear, starting where endgame finished, but a J/C quick reversal - coming home with you. I think my following fanfics prob don't need a readthrough of the initial fanfic first, but since i loved that, I would recommend that you do. My profile is going to try and keep the timeline showing, in case you would like to go with it!_

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'Spirits of my people, be with us as we bless voyager

Crew of voyager, together let us show our strength united by which voyager defended us in the delta quadrant

People of voyager, together let us show our thanks for the haven voyager gave us when we were far from home

Family of Voyager, together let us show our pride at the skills Voyager gave us allowing us to grow into the people we are today

Children of Voyager, let us praise the home that Voyager gave us so that we were never alone

Voyager, we give thanks for your safety, your resilience and the creation of our family, for whom you were our first home.

Voyager, we give thanks for our second chances, the ability to rectify our mistakes, to learn from our errors.

Voyager, we give thanks that working together you brought us safely home

Spirits of my father, be with us as we bless Voyager.'

Chakotay leads us all in this blessing for voyager, with all of us speaking the middle lines. Then there is a pause, for crew to shout or murmur their own thanks before he repeats the last line.

It is the end of a celebration of voyager. in the morning we finally all removed the last of our belongings from voyager, ready for her refit. Most of us had mostly done this, our belongings filling the starfleet accommodation where we all have a years guarenteed rent-free stay, regardless whether we stay in starfleet or not. It is more generous than I ever expected, and I know that this too is a result of our captain's tireless dedication on our behalf. My future is more uncertain than most, i am spared a court-martial, but after debriefings, there will be a review where my future in starfleet will be decided, and i may receive a dishonourable discharge. The captain has offered me counsel, should i wish to stay. if i don't, there are plenty of commercial opportunities.

I had never expected to get so attached to Voyager, latecomer that I was. Not only latecomer, but starfleet traitor, having been an essential accomplice for throwing away all their ideals. I had never expected to be accepted, to be drawn into the crew, and have my skills recognised and utilised. In my anger, I had never expected to come to admire Captain Janeway, let alone stand as a member of the voyager family, proud to acknowledge her as my leader, mentor and role model. Chakotay has left us space to murmur our own words of thanks to Voyager, and I here many thanks cried out, for the strong bulkheads, the ablative armour, for resisting the unresistable Borg. I thank voyager for giving me a second chance, it has been a ship full of second chances, and allowing me atonement.

However, in the afternoon, in the mess hall, there we placed official photos of each stage of the Captain's procession, permanently fixed to the walls. Around these, there was a space for us all to bring something of us back to Voyager, and after some discussion, around the images we have placed our handprints and signed them. We spent this afternoon doing this, with The Captain and Chakotay leading the way, with a space left for Tuvok, when he is well again. Starfleet guarantee that this will always stay on voyager, regardless of future use. once completed with Tuvok's print - and I hear the captain has asked him to place his in the live long and prosper gesture - it will be covered by a durable translucent polymer. We laughed and then almost all got carried away, so that as we stood outside listening first to the captain tell us what voyager has meant to her, then Naomi, as voyager's first daughter on growing up on voyager, before Chakotay's blessing, we all had painted handmarks liberally covering our previously pristine starfleet clothing.

This ceremony is just for us, which is just as well considering the command team are covered in handprints, including the matching handprints on their backsides. I think every crewmember who wanted and asked has the captain's prints, mostly on shoulder, where she would squeeze, or arm, where she would hold. certainly this is a precious handprint for me. I have the commanders on my other shoulder. other than that, i have the engineering detail and the others from Equinox. Some crew-members are more liberally handprinted than others. Seven has no handprints, having declined, even with the captain's beseeching, stating this as being irrelevant to the celebration. icheb only has his Mom, the commander, Naomi and Sam, as Seven also declined to give handprints. The captain, unsurprisingly, is liberally covered since she and the commander set off this whole craziness. the commander staked his claim first with double handprints to ass - much hilarity at her initially shocked face and the huge gasp she gave. We all expected a death stare and booted down to ensign, but he cunningly stopped her reprimand with a toecurlingly passionate kiss. then he placed his hands over her breasts. when she had caught her breath the Captain then staked her claim with a double handprint to his ass but a single one over his heart, where she has often rested her hand throughout the journey. I cannot believe that we also saw this gesture repeated again and again and never realised that she was saying 'i love you'. Once the laughter had settled, the captain was given handprints by all the senior crew, the bridge team and Naomi and Miral, by which point there was little uniform to view. Chakotay, he had handprints from the previous maquis and then all the female crew that could stake a claim before his uniform was covered. That was the signal for mass handprinting until finally the captain set off a red alert to have us all out for the actual ceremony. I think for many of us, the handprinting was a good way to put something of ourselves always on voyager, whether we get to crew her again or not. We have our voyager pins, a piece of her always with us. It is a staged way of letting go, of saying goodbye to something that we will always be a part of. I am glad that none of us will be detailed to clean the mess hall though.

After we have spoken our individual blessings for voyager Chakotay repeats his blessing a final time. the captain, in all her technicolour handprinted glory, with smudges of paint where she has wiped her forehead, then presses the button, with chants of 'do it' as encouragement, something which she must now be regretting ever saying. The material is pulled away from the landing platform infront of the shuttle bay, and there, permanently delineated, is the chamusay sign of chakotay's sky spirits, a sign of thankfulness, of acknowledging a debt to our sky home.

Thankyou, Voyager, for keeping us safe, giving us a family, giving us a future and bringing us home.

It is Tom, as always, that brings the festive back into the reflective. There is a party in the starfleet ballroom. Informal, party clothes, food and alcohol. He gives us one hour to arrive! And that is what I love about the voyager family. We respect who we are, where we have come from, what we have lost and gained, but we can still throw a knockdown good party.


End file.
